The Washington Post apologized Tuesday over its front page Monday showing mourners of an 11-year-old killed in a Hezbollah rocket strike — alongside a head-scratching headline about Israeli airstrikes.
The headline, “Israel hits its targets in Lebanon,” directly underneath the photo of heartbroken loved ones draped over the casket of Alma Ayman Fakhr al-Din, 11, “did not provide adequate context,” the paper admitted in an editor’s note Tuesday.
“The headlines should have noted that the Israeli strikes were a response to a rocket strike from Lebanon that killed 12 teenagers and children in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights,” it said.
“The photo depicted mourning for one of those victims, as the caption noted.”
Alma and 11 other youngsters were killed in the Hezbollah strike on a soccer field on Saturday.
Another 40 people were injured in the strike, which was the deadliest against Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.
The daily broadsheet was quickly slammed online over its gaffe, including by the Israel Defense Forces, which posted on X, “You can see the grieving family members burying children murdered by Hezbollah in the Madjal Shams massacre. If by chance you understood anything else from their headline, you might not be the problem.”
“That’s an image of a funeral of a girl KILLED IN ISRAEL BY A HEZBOLLAH ROCKET FROM LEBANON, so why is the Washington Post headline backwards?” Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy added on X alongside a screenshot of the front page.
Pro-Israel Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) also questioned the paper’s decision to frame Israel as the “aggressor” underneath an image of a child killed by the terror group.
One online commenter accused the Jeff Bezos-owned paper of being “a propaganda arm of Hamas since October.”
The horrific attack on the Golan Heights took place as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was concluding his visit to Washington, DC.
Netanyahu raced home on an earlier flight in order to address the tragedy – and vowed that Israel “will not let this pass in silence.”
Despite the prime minister’s promise of retaliation, several families of the young victims refused to meet with him, Haaretz reported.